The NOC (Network Operations Center) provides a comprehensive set of monitoring tools and services available to all Barco digital cinema customers, reports David Davies. Described as a proactive service intended to ensure the optimum performance of each customer’s digital cinema network, the NOC now offers expanded monitoring capabilities for networked projectors, servers, theatre management systems, automation controllers, switches and UPS units.
Expanded remote network analysis, new remote upgrade and configuration capabilities, and round-the-clock site schedule and content verification are among the new NOC services.
Joel Davis, VP of operations for Premiere Cinemas, provided a customer perspective: “The great thing about the NOC is that it helps us anticipate our needs, before we actually encounter issues. Having that kind of backup is imperative. We have 12 locations where the NOC is monitoring over 160 Barco projectors for us. We know that when we walk into any one of our theatres running Barco equipment, we’re going to have a perfect picture on the screen, all the time.”
Considering the outlook for the scheme in Europe, Barco market director digital cinema Tim Sinnaeve told Installation Europe: “We are planning to expand the functionality and capability of [Europe’s] NOC and we will start offering the NOC services worldwide as well. There is a clear need for remote monitoring and NOC services in the digital cinema market, and Barco is intending to create added value by offering remote management services and solutions that fit the needs of its customers and partners.”